The Universe Has Your Back: Transform Fear into Faith

In her latest book, The Universe Has Your Back, New York Times best-selling author Gabrielle Bernstein teaches listeners how to transform their fear into faith in order to live a divinely guided life. Each story and lesson in the book guides listeners to release the blocks to what they most long for: happiness, security, and clear direction. The lessons help listeners relinquish the need to control so they can relax into a sense of certainty and freedom.

Grit: How to Keep Going When You Want to Give Up

Tempted to give up? Here's how to keep going. If you browse through the interviews with some of the most successful people on Earth, you'll find one common piece of advice shared by virtually all of them: They never give up on their big goals. Research shows that grit is a better predictor for success than any other factor. The ability to keep going despite setbacks is more important than your IQ, character, or external factors like your upbringing or surroundings.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Readers and listeners of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert's books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering.

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

In this book Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create lives that are both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of whom or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.

Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Every Day of Your Life

In this inspirational audio book, author M.J. Ryan helps listeners identify the areas in their everyday lives where they can experience the positive effects of practicing gratitude. Short essays explain why gratitude chases away negative emotions and how gratitude is possible even in times of unavoidable hardship. M.J. Ryan is the executive director of Conari Press, publisher of the best-selling Random Acts of Kindness series.

Trusting Yourself: How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed and Live More Happily with Less Effort

In her warm and inimitable way, M. J. Ryan guides us to look at our lives from a different perspective. To imagine what they would be like if we practiced an attitude of self-trust, if we received the gifts trusting ourselves might give us. In an age of constant media messages and so-called expert advice telling us to be richer, thinner, smart, and faster, we're all dogged with worry and self-doubt. Best-selling author M. J. Ryan believes we've become so dependent on "experts" to tell us how to live our lives that we listen to everyone except ourselves.

The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms

As the creator of DanielleLaPorte.com - deemed "the best place online for kick-ass spirituality," Danielle LaPorte’s straight-talk life-and-livelihood sermons have inspired over one million people. Bold but empathetic, she reframes popular self-help and success concepts.

The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit

Little changes can make a big, big difference! In The Little Book of Big Change, psychologist Amy Johnson shows you how to rewire your brain and overcome your bad habits - once and for all. No matter what your bad habit is, you have the power to change it. Drawing on a powerful combination of neuroscience and spirituality, this book will show you that you are not your habits. Rather, your habits and addictions are the result of simple brain wiring that is easily reversed.

Dr. Brian L. Carpenter says:"If you're ready to change, this is the book"

Ready to live your dream life? You know that sneaky voice inside your head telling you that you're not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, whatever enough? That's your Mean Girl. And she's doing her best to keep you stuck in Fear Town, too scared to go after the life you always imagined. But enough's enough! Melissa Ambrosini has made a life beyond her wildest dreams, all by mastering her Mean Girl, busting through limiting beliefs and karate-chopping through the fears that held her hostage for years.

How to Have More Time: Practical Ways to Put an End to Constant Busyness and Design a Time-Rich Lifestyle

Time is your most precious commodity - everyone has only so much - so why do you spend it like you have an unlimited supply? When the Grim Reaper finally comes for you, will you smile, remembering all the experiences you had that made you happy, or will you think back with a tear at all the "what ifs" you missed because you just "didn't have the time"? How to Have More Time will help you reclaim your time for you, your goals, and your sanity.

Science has figured out a lot of interesting aspects of self-discipline and willpower, but most of this knowledge is buried deep inside long, boring scientific papers. If you'd like to benefit from these studies without actually reading them, this audiobook is for you. I've done the job for you and researched the most useful and viable scientific findings that will help you improve your self-discipline.

Radical Beauty: How to Transform Yourself from the Inside Out

Deepak Chopra and Kimberly Snyder offer an exciting and practical program to help transform you from the inside out. Through six pillars of healthy living that focus on internal and external nourishment, sleep, living naturally, avoiding excessive stress, and better understanding the relationship between emotions and inflammatory foods, the authors offer practical tips, tools, innovative routines, and foods that will allow you to achieve your highest potential of beauty and health.

50 Ways to Yay!: Transformative Tools for a Whole Lot of Happy

Thought leader and inspirational vlogger Alexi Panos has helped hundreds of thousands with their own searches for personal happiness and to create epic lives. In 50 Ways to Yay!, Alexi helps you do the same with 50 motivating, empowering, and thought-provoking lessons and exercises to help you break out of the ordinary and jump into the extraordinary. With her guidance you can experience a domino effect of inner peace, inspiration, and a whole lot of happy.

Sometimes we lack discipline or motivation. However, there's another reason why you might struggle to make changes in your life - you have low self-efficacy. What is self-efficacy? What are the main four sources of it? How can you develop more confidence in your abilities? These are some of the questions I'll answer in this short book. The advice you're about to read is based both on scientific research and my personal experience.

Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life

One Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, Gretchen Rubin felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick - why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home. And what did she want from her home? A place that calmed her and energized her. A place that, by making her feel safe, would free her to take risks.

Do you make goals yet get discouraged when your plans don't work? We all know those people who seemingly were born to succeed. Fitness, health, business - they achieve all their goals. You want that success and know you can get it... but how?

Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind & Soul

Ruth Soukup, a New York Times best-selling author and founder of the wildly popular blog LivingWellSpendingLess.com, knows all too well just how overwhelming it can feel to have a home - and life - filled with too many things. Through personal stories and practical action plans, she inspires and empowers other women to finally declutter not only their homes but their minds and souls as well.

The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Each day we face a barrage of images and messages from society and the media telling us who, what, and how we should be. We are led to believe that if we could only look perfect and lead perfect lives, we'd no longer feel inadequate. So most of us perform, please, and perfect, all the while thinking, What if I can't keep all of these balls in the air? Why isn't everyone else working harder and living up to my expectations? What will people think if I fail or give up? When can I stop proving myself?

Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives

The author of the blockbuster New York Times best sellers The Happiness Project and Happier at Home tackles the critical question: How do we change? Gretchen Rubin's answer: through habits. Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life. It takes work to make a habit, but once that habit is set, we can harness the energy of habits to build happier, stronger, more productive lives.

The Happiness Project

Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

In this must-listen book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and businesspeople - both seasoned and new - that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called "grit". Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success.

Thank & Grow Rich is for anyone interested in hooking up with the magnanimous energy field of the cosmos. Author Pam Grout, who likes to call herself the Warren Buffet of Happiness, says it all starts with getting on the frequency of joy and gratitude. Thanking (rather than thinking) puts us on an energetic frequency - a vibration - that calls in miracles.

The Here-and-Now Habit: How Mindfulness Can Help You Break Unhealthy Habits Once and for All

Have you found yourself doing something and thinking, Why do I keep doing this? We all have an unhealthy habit - or two, or three. Yours may be as simple as wasting time on the Internet, constantly checking your email, or spending too much time in front of the TV. Or it may be more serious, like habitual drinking, emotional overeating, constant self-criticism, or chronic worrying. Whatever your harmful habit is - you have the power to break it.

Publisher's Summary

Learn the secret to making changes that stick! Every so often people get inspired (again!) to lose weight, to get organized, to start saving, or to stop worrying - but a few months later they give up, frustrated. It doesn't have to be that way.

In This Year I Will..., best-selling author M.J. Ryan offers breakthrough wisdom and coaching to help listeners make this time the time that change becomes permanent.

Why do people find it so hard to change? The secret is that everyone has their own formula for making changes that stick, but most people don't know what theirs is. They think there is one way to lose five pounds, and another way to stay on top of their e-mail, but they don't realize that for all changes, there is one system that works best for each individual.

This Year I Will... helps you lock on to your unique formula for planning, implementing, and seeing a life change through, so you can use it again and again to tackle anything else you'd like to do.

For anyone who has broken a New Year's resolution, fallen off a diet, or given up on fulfilling a dream, the ingenious strategies, inspiring stories, and sheer motivational energy of This Year I Will... will help you make a promise to yourself that you can actually keep.

What the Critics Say

"If you're struggling and think that one more title can't possibly make a difference, think again. M.J. Ryan has the rare gift of breaking things down into clear pieces that can be tackled." (Laura Berman Fortgang, author of Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction)

The narrator of this book speaks in such a rapid fire, high speed manner that it is overwhelming to listen to except for in short bursts. Kind of like being taught how to have a snow ball fight with an instructor who repeatedly hits you square in the face with a truck load of snow balls. Great info but the delivery is so fast and intense that even the narrator has trouble getting the words out--many mis-speaking issues. I felt like begging her to take a breath. The information presented is solid and possibly helpful--if you can stand the delivery.

As was mentioned in another review, the knowledge of this book is blocked by the presentation. It sounds like the author was reading it from her kitchen table with echo, background noise and general mistakes while reading. The good news is it has some helpful tips. Now I have to get the hard copy to fully enjoy it.

Yes, there are many good tips in this book. The author states that this isn't a read once and put away type of book. There are many things to try in order to find what method(s) suit you best.

What three words best describe M. J. Ryan’s performance?

Moving Right Along : )

Any additional comments?

Much of this book is something I've read before, but things that didn't really stick until presented here which is the odd part. It's not so much the author's reading that hindered me fully loving this book, it actually felt more conversational and relaxed with her occasional misspoken words and awkward pauses. My shortcoming with this "Audible Book" is the pacing. It feels like the chapters flow from one to the next without emphasis nor separation of idea(s). I had to pause, backup, and write down the idea or key points to the previous topic a lot.

Me personally, I don't feel that this is a book that I can casually listen to in the car or while exercising because without rapt attention, the ideas just flow right past. I'm still giving it good marks based on content, I like the author's voice and presentation... just the pacing.

It is a shame that Ms. Ryan chose to read this book herself. Her reading isn't awful, but the quality varies and her delivery is sometimes amateurish. That being said, I have listened to the book several times because I find the content to be excellent - very motivating and helpful in making changes. Ms. Ryan has very good suggestions and examples of how to go about making lasting change. She also addresses some of the biological reasons why change is difficult and approaches that help overcome our resistance. Listen to the sample and decide for yourself on her delivery. Her message is definitely worth listening to. I'd have given it 5 stars if only the reading were more professional.

Last New Year's Day, as I was taking down Christmas decorations, I listened to Andrew Mellen's "Unstuff Your Life! Kick the Clutter Habit and Organize Your Life for Good" (2010). I had decided 2013 was the year I would work on organizing my home, starting with holiday lights, ornaments, and decorations. It ended up taking me a week to box it all, but at the beginning of December, I knew it really worked. The house was festive, and thanks to the other tips in that book, it's well on the way to being uncluttered.

That was such a success, I decided to start 2014 out with another self help book, listening as I put decorations away (just a few hours this year). I chose M J Ryan's "This Year I Will: How To Finally Change A Habit, Keep A Resolution, Or Make A Dream Come True" (2006). I have some habits I'd like to shed, along with a few pounds; some habits I'd like to establish; and a dream or two that's been simmering on the back burner as I dedicated myself to raising kids who are finally old enough to make themselves dinner and get to and from practices.

"This Year I Will" is a really practical guide to looking at what you would like to do; establishing reachable goals; the methods for reaching those goals; and, most importantly for me, what to do if you fall out of the Keebler Elf Tree House and eat a cookie or five. Ryan talks about how to handle temporary setbacks without turning them into permanent failures. She also discusses different motivations, and why what works for some (a reward or treat) isn't necessarily going to work for people who are motivated by other factors, like the joy of competition.

I'm very hopeful that the techniques I learned listening to this book will work for me.

Ryan narrated the book, and I liked her voice. The production quality was a little rough and it could have used an audio proof listen - but it didn't distract from the message.

MJ Ryan offers a nice package of worthwhile, if not unique, wisdom about getting past mental hurdles that typically hinder progress toward achieving a goal. Unfortunately, MJ decided to read her own book rather than hire a professional, which I believe was a very bad move. I got some useful strategies from the book, but I lost focus about halfway through because it was so hard to listen to MJ stumble through her own content. Good think the book was only 4 1/2 hours!

If you could sum up This Year I Will in three words, what would they be?

Good advice, ideas

Who was your favorite character and why?

No characters in this book. Is a self help one not a novel.

Have you listened to any of M. J. Ryan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No because sounded like it was being read in a tunnel.

Any additional comments?

The book is a good one giving the reader much to digest from the little I heard. Lots of advice and how-to's to make changes from reading rhe preview. But rapid fire reading was hard to follow. I decided to get the book instead of rewinding to understand what was being said. It should have been read slower so the listener could understand the processes needed to make those changes in their life. I found it good enough to purchase the book.

I would consider a hard copy versus audio for future books by this author.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Well, yes. I liked the conversational feel but the pacing was awkward and it sounded unrehearsed. The worse part is that is sounds like the reader was sitting in their bathroom reading from notes. Would benefit from a more professional reading of the material.

Any additional comments?

Might have to get a hard copy to get a real benefit from this material. A little disappointed in the audio book product.

The ideas in the book are simple. But that's because the method to change is simple -- find the right approach for you and identify what would motivate you to continue day after day. People often fail because of two reasons. They talk about or read about change but don't take any action. Or they start without having a plan or consider how to get back on track when slipping up occasionally.

If you're ready to make a change, this is a great book to walk you through it. The author describes the steps (e.g., plan and prepare). She gives examples of where people have succeeded and failed in these steps. You decide what would work for you. Go through the book slowly. Absorb a few ideas and practice the techniques. Be willing to tweak it so it works for you (e.g., putting sticky notes to remind yourself rather than beat yourself up when you forget to do something). After accomplishing those steps, move on to the next section in the book.